Vision Quest

Place of event: Beautiful and silent place in the middle of the woods, 400 meters from the Baltic Sea.

Limit: 10 persons

Costs:

2750€ if staying in equipped overnight tents

3000€ if staying in a single room

Description:

Earth, isn't this what you want? To arise in us, invisible?

Is it not your dream, to enter us so wholly

there's nothing left outside us to see?

What, if not transformation,

is your deepest purpose? Earth, my love,

I want it too. Believe me,

no more of your springtimes are needed

to win me over—even one flower

is more than enough. Before I was named

I belonged to you. I see no other law

but yours, and know I can trust

the death you will bring.

See, I live. On what?

Childhood and future are equally present.

Sheer abundance of being

floods my heart.

From THE NINTH DUINO ELEGY

by Rainer Maria Rilke

(Translated by Anita Burrows & Joanna Macy)

This contemporary Western embodiment of the ancient, pan-cultural vision fast is

a dynamic wilderness rite for you who are longing to step off-trail, take leave from

the conventional knowledge of the village, break from the marching step of clocktime

and sink your roots into the deep green expanse of forest consciousness and

the dreaming of earth. Not for a ‘holiday’. But for the holy privilege to respond to

a primordial call from deep inside to break open wide your heart to earth’s wild

wisdom, uncover the passion and wisdom of your soul, and consciously embody

the particular and unique gift that is yours to live into the world in service to life;

inhabit your place of belonging.

As a rite of initiation, the quest is a ceremonial descent to the underworld, in which

you die to your familiar way of belonging to the world. The Animas Quest catalyzes

the encounter with soul by temporarily displacing everyday consciousness through

five primary means: (1) solitude for three or four days and nights while (2) fasting

(i.e., drinking water only), (3) being fully exposed to and enfolded within the forms

and forces of nature, (4) enacting a series of ceremonies, and (5) employing a set

of practices (soulcraft) that support you in crossing into the mysteries of nature and

psyche.

This quest will take place over a total of 11days. Preceding your time of solitude are

five full days of preparation activities to support you to become more permeable

and vulnerable to the touch of the wild world upon you and let yourself be

changed.

During the first five preparation days at the Station in Luzna, we will open to the

mysterious Dreaming that comes through our night dreams, deep imagination and

edge of consciousness. We will work with poetry, ceremonial trance drumming and

dance, dialogues and sacred reciprocity with nature, the way of council, and other

practices to help us slip out of the skins of our everyday lives and access deeper,

wilder currents of nature and psyche.

The heart of the quest consists of the solo: three days and nights without human

companionship in nature, fasting, engaging in personal ceremonies, saying yes to

the mysteries of soul, tending the true mythos of your life, praising and grieving,

and gestating a vision. Upon your return to base camp, there are three days of

reincorporation activities, preparing you to embody among your people what you

received on your fast.

The Guides:

Sage Magdalene: Sage is an artist creating experiences that promote radical shifts

of consciousness leading to generous, generative, Earth-loving practices of

ecological reciprocity. She designs collaborative international gatherings,

performances and demonstrations that encourage cross-species communication

and initiate quantum shifts in humanity's capacity to respond creatively and

compassionately to current planetary crisis situations.

Sage is a guide and trainer for Animas Valley Institute, an organization dedicated to

supporting the underworld journey to soul initiation for present and future

generations. She has a gift for hearing and reflecting the deep stories of many

beings. She invites people to thresholds and opens gates between worlds. She has

been an educator, artist, dancer, and gate keeper in many ecosystems. Her greatest

joy is to hear and converse with the wild others: moon, spider, frog, human, river

and stars. She brings a light touch and embodied wisdom to the serious work of

transformation. Sage lives in the Pojoaque River Valley, northern New Mexico, USA.